Queen Mary I of England performing the Royal Touch. Oil painting by H. M. Hayman. Mary I (1516 -1558) was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death. Her executions of Protestants caused her opponents to give her the sobriquet "Bloody Mary." She was the only child of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon who survived to adulthood. The royal touch (also known as the king's touch) was a form of laying on of hands, whereby French and English monarchs would touch their subjects, regardless of social classes, with the intent to cure them of various diseases and conditions. The thaumaturgic touch was most commonly applied to people suffering from tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis (better known as scrofula or the King's Evil), and exclusively to them from 16th century onwards. The disease rarely resulted in death and often went into remission on its own, giving the impression that the monarch's touch cured it. The claimed power was most notably exercised by monarchs who sought to demonstrate the legitimacy of their reign and of their newly founded dynasties.